Horse Health & Veterinary Care

Practical, vet-informed guidance on equine health: vaccinations, preventative care, common ailments, and knowing when to call the vet.

• The core vaccines every horse needs, and why — Four diseases are common, deadly, and almost entirely preventable for the price of a tank of gas. Here's the short list every horse in North America should get, every year.
• Colic: what to watch for and what to do before the vet arrives — Colic is the leading natural killer of horses, and the minutes between noticing it and calling for help matter. Here's how to read the signs and what to do while you wait.
• When it's an emergency: knowing when to call the vet now — Some problems can wait until morning. Some can't, and a few hours' delay changes the outcome. Here's how to tell the difference and stop second-guessing the late-night call.
• Strategic deworming: why the every-eight-weeks habit is wrong — Rotating dewormers every two months made sense in 1975. Today it breeds drug-resistant parasites and wastes money. Here's the fecal-driven approach that actually works.
• Catching lameness before it becomes a layup — The horse that's three-legged lame got that way over weeks of small changes nobody noticed. Learn to read the early signals and you'll trade a long layup for a short rest.
• What actually belongs in a horse first-aid kit — Most barn first-aid kits are a tangle of expired ointment and one roll of crusty vetwrap. Here's how to build one you can actually grab in an emergency.
• Why your horse's teeth need a yearly look — A horse that drops feed, tilts his head, or fights the bit is often telling you about his mouth. Here's what floating actually does and why an annual exam earns its keep.
• Keeping the arthritic horse comfortable and working — Arthritis isn't a retirement notice. With the right mix of movement, footing, joint support, and honest management, most arthritic horses stay sound, happy, and in work for years.
• Caring for the horse in his twenties — Horses are living longer and working later than ever. Here's how to keep the old campaigner thriving in his twenties, from his teeth to his topline to his daily routine.
• Winter horse care: water, blankets, and the things people forget — Cold doesn't hurt healthy horses nearly as much as dehydration and bad decisions do. Here's what actually matters when the temperature drops, and what people get wrong.
• Beating the heat: managing horses through a brutal summer — Heat stress sneaks up faster than people expect, and a dehydrated horse is a colic and a tying-up waiting to happen. Here's how to keep horses safe when the heat index climbs.
• How to take your horse's vital signs (and what's normal) — When you call your vet in an emergency, the first thing they'll ask is for numbers. Here's how to take your horse's temperature, pulse, and respiration, and what the readings mean.
• A month-by-month horse health calendar you can copy — Most preventative care gets missed not because owners don't care, but because nobody wrote it down. Here's a fill-in calendar that turns a year of health tasks into twelve simple checkpoints.
• Call, monitor, or wait: an emergency decision playbook — The hardest part of a horse emergency isn't the crisis itself. It's deciding, in the moment, whether to call now, watch closely, or relax. This playbook gives you a clear-headed framework before you need it.
• A care plan template for the horse over twenty — Horses are living longer and working later than ever, but the senior horse needs a plan, not a guess. Here's a fill-in care template that keeps your old campaigner comfortable, sound, and thriving.